Re: Enforcement of US Work in Foreign Country Under Berne

On Tue, 22 Feb 2005, Mike Tucci wrote:

> I know that Berne is designed to dispense with formalities so as to limit
> the barriers to enforcement in other Berne countries.  Can a US work
> which is not registered in the US be enforced ex-US in a Berne country? 
> Under US law, registration is a prerequisite to suit, so that work could
> not be enforced in the US.  What about overseas?  My research suggests
> that an unregistered work from the US could be enforced under Berne in a
> Berne country.  That result does not seem right to me.  Any thoughts?

It seems right to me.

Berne limits the restrictions that the a country can put on nationals of other countries, but not its own. So, while the US is permitted to require registration prior to a US national filing suit, it is not able to impose the same requirements on non-US nationals.

Similarly, another country would not be able to impose that requirement on a US national. Received on Wed Feb 23 2005 - 03:00:01 GMT